Halo All or Nothing
by ArbitorMessiah
Summary: The events after Halo 2, and the personal revelations of the only man capable of stopping the Covenant.


**Halo - All or Nothing**

**Chapter 1: Destination**

He had been lucky. The bay that held the energy output coupling also contained several maintenance hatches, which were all too small for him, save one. He could feel the ship taking off, and felt the sensation of jumping into slipspace. He disregarded the feeling and continued along the accessway which served as a maintenance tunnel for the onboard engineers. He crawled for several minutes until he reached an exit for the tunnel, but upon hearing voices outside of the hatch, he froze and began to listen to their conversation.

"The Elites will be snuffed out like the fools they are. Only an idiot would betray the Prophets!" came the voice of a Brute, the low guttural growls and snorts of their native language were distinct.

"I only wish that we could kill them ourselves" said another.

"Yes, the humans may be frail, but they fight like demons. It will be a great honor to destroy them and usher ourselves along on the Great Journey! I hear we will be at their home planet in a matter of hours!" said the first, his voice filling with glee and lust.

John's gut clenched tightly.

'So they're going to Earth..' thought John. He knew he must eliminate the Prophet of Truth before he had a chance to destroy Earth, and the entire galaxy. With a pang of regret he remembered Cortana stranded on High Charity. He would miss her, she was the closest thing to family he had had since his brothers and sisters had been killed by the Covenant. That would be another thing to make them suffer for.

Checking his belt and ammo packs, he counted his armaments. A Battle Rifle with seventy-eight rounds, an Energy Sword with twenty-eight energy, three Fragmentation Grenades, and two Plasma Grenades. Satisified, he slowly crept forward, and opened the hatchway. Peering out, he saw no resistance, and crept from his former hiding place noiselessly. He proceeded down the hallway in the opposite direction of the Brutes he had overheard. The lighting of the hallway was similiar to the Covenant ships, but much brighter and more appealing to human eyes. John's detected movement at the end of the hallway, and he quickly backed against the wall, hidden from view by an arch. He heard a pair of heavy footsteps, and braced the handle of the energy blade in his right hand, his thumb resting on the activation stud. The Brutes walked by without noticing him, their simian faces turned towards the direction of the last patrol. He activated the blade, dashed forward, and decapitated the closest Brute. The other Brute, hearing the crack of the energy blade and feeling the warm spray of his comrades blood whirled around and struck out at John. He ducked, spun, and neatly bisected the Brute. He picked up two plasma grenades, and moved on.

He had met no further resistance, but that was mainly because he had travelled through the various maintenance hallways. He had been inching along when he came upon a room leading off from the small hallway. He decided to investigate, after all, the maintance shaft had lead nowhere important so far. Slowly heading down the new hall, he heard voices somewhere ahead. He stopped when he was in hearing distance, surprised to hear the voice of an Elite.

"The bridge is here" said one Elite, "we will send in Spec Ops Commander Kartinee with four other warriors here. We will then assault them from the rear entrances here, and here." John heard a clicking noise, the Elites finger tapping a surface.

"The Prophet must be stopped, if he gains access to the Index, we will all perish. But not in the glory of battle, or an honorable death. We will die in the radiant flash of a machine meant to destroy all sentient life. The Gods had failed to exterminate the flood, and so have we. We can atleast rectify this mistake!" the Elite finished, and his voice was accompanied by a series of roars.

He heard an energy blade activate behind him. He whirled around and made to grab his blade, but a white Elite with his sword at the ready stopped him.

"Stay your hand Demon, and I shall not kill you."


End file.
